The Haryana Government has notified a comprehensive "Affordable Housing Policy 2013" to facilitate creation of additional affordable housing stock in the urban areas of the state. Stating this here today, a spokesperson of the Town and Country Planning Department said the policy was intended to encourage the planning and completion of group housing projects wherein apartments of redefined size were made available at pre-defined rates within a targeted time-frame to ensure increased supply of affordable housing in the urban housing market to the deserving beneficiaries. He said all such projects would be required to be completed within four years from the approval of building plans or grant of environmental clearance, whichever was later.The projects under this policy would be allowed only in the residential zone of the notified development plans of various towns or cities. The maximum area for which such projects could be allowed in a development plan included 300 acres for Gurgaon, Faridabad, Panchkula, Panchkula Extension and Pinjore-Kalka, 150 acres for Sonipat, Panipat, Karnal, Dharuhera, Bahadurgarh and Sohna and 75 acres for the rest of the development plans. The apartments of pre-defined size-range would be allotted at a pre-defined rate to ensure provision of affordable housing under this policy. The carpet area of the apartments would range from 28 sqm to 60 sqm in size. No separate EWS category apartments would be provided to eliminate any cross-subsidy component and thus to avoid any adverse impact on the affordability of apartments made available under this policy. The maximum allotment rate on the per square feet carpet area basis for the apartment units approved under such projects would be Rs 4,000 for Gurgaon, Faridabad, Panchkula and Pinjore-Kalka, Rs 3600 for other high and medium potential towns and Rs 3,000 for low potential town. As many as 56 licence applications have been filed by various colonisers, out of which 40 applications are falling in various sectors of Gurgaon, eight applications for Sohna, six applications for Faridabad and one each for Jhajjar and Karnal under the affordable housing policy.